History was made April 1 in Amsterdam when three couples of gay men and one couple of lesbians were married under the world’s first law allowing legal marriage between same-sex couples [Advocate.com]. I suppose this is a positive development, but given my serious reservations about the gay marriage issue, I mark it with reserved applause at best. It’s not that I think gay people should be denied the privileges that str8 couples get. It’s that I don’t think that the government has any business extending or denying benefits to people on the basis of who they’re sleeping with–whether that person is a member of the same sex, a member of the opposite sex, transgendered, intersex, or anything else. So, yay for civil liberties / equal access being extended. Boo for the continued State privileging of marriage.

Two brothers in Middleburg, PA will face trial for attempted murder in yet another savage anti-gay beating [Advocate.com]. The victim has been left permanently comatose. If you live in Alabama, please call or write your state Representative in support of HB 423, which has just been sent to the House floor for consideration. The bill will add sexual orientation to the provisions of Alabama’s hate crimes bill, and was introduced in response to the similarly brutal 1999 beating death of Billy Jack Gaither.

To find your state representative by your ZIP code, go to http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html and enter your ZIP code. Once you have your Representative’s name, you can contact her/his office by telephone at (334) 242-7600 and asking for her/his telephone extension. You can also contact her/him by snail mail at:

Member’s Name<br/> House of Representatives<br/> 11 South Union Street<br/> Montgomery, AL 36130

Anne Serene’s Trans Reference Site has an amazing wealth of information about transgender / transsexual / intersex etc. issues. It’ll help you out more in understanding transgender experience than an episode of Jerry Springer, anyway.

A great interview with Alison Bechdel, cartoonist of Dykes to Watch Out For

More for the In a Stunning Development file: an internal audit commissioned by Chief Charles Ramsey, it has been found that 10% of the officers on the D.C. police force have sent e-mail containing hate slurs, including ethnic and racial slurs, sexually inappropriate content and offensive comments about homosexuals. Some of the e-mails also included content about illegal drug use by officers, sexual activity on the job, and evidence of racial profiling. Malcolm X once said that white hatemongers had traded in the hoods and sheets — well, some of them have traded in the hoods and sheets — and taken up blue uniforms. The sad thing is how often the news continues to prove him right.